80 great quotes about love and romance: from Adam and Eve to chemsex

There is some debate whether Charles Bukowski actually wrote the ironic letter that contained this weird advice but perhaps he had ANNE BOLEYN in mind. Her husband, King Henry VIII, had what you might describe as a rather volatile attitude towards love. Anne was, of course, only the second of his six wives. His love letters to her survive. The man who was capable in 1527 of writing to her "beseeching earnestly" her affection after being "stricken with the dart of love" was capable nine years later of having her head lopped off (by a French swordsman) on Tower Green.

Really eagle-eyed readers will notice that Anne's head in the above photograph bears an resemblance to Helena Bonham-Carter, who played her in the 2003 ITV mini-series (above). Henry VIII was played by Ray Winson, for completists. Henry, incidentally, went on to have his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, executed.